the algerian hostage crisis. reportedly rise to twenty five while it is suggested that france's intervention which provoked the terrorist attack is actually a resource grabbing operation. hundreds of friends and supporters of internet freedom activist aaron swartz gathered for his memorial with his family maintaining the computer prodigy was driven to suicide by prosecutors and a looming trial against him. and as pakistan agrees to dissolve parliament in the face of protests over corruption allegations in the capital. talks to the man behind government uproar.

and recapping the week's top stories and bring you today's top news this is r t what have you with us. the algerian military has reportedly taken five islamic terrorists alive in the aftermath of the gas facility hostage siege with the clear up operation still ongoing the civilian death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are discovered several foreign civilians were among the dozens killed when algerian forces stormed the site taken by militants in revenge for the french intervention in neighboring mali and there are increasing claims that paris invaded out of self interest as a public boyko reports. but there will be studied terrorism was about to overwhelm this friendly country the terrorism that threatens not just all of west africa but also the entire world. he's vowed that france weren't stop its intervention in mali

until islamic extremism in the country is stamped out the military has announced that it's going to be sending more troops but the total set to exceed two and a half thousand the stated goal to help the government in bamako drive out islamist insurgents the fall of france while mom's talk of freedom and democracy critics say the french government soon you see as a for the military offensive could be linked to other elements you maybe it is from . many people say huge parts of it's a huge factor in its economy and it's something that not only mali but specifically niger and other neighboring parts where the tourist people reside. sits on top of almost every single light bulb in france runs on electricity generated by nuclear power nuclear power relies on a steady flow of pure rainy i'm so you don't have to be

a nuclear physicist to figure out that to keep all these bright lights on the french government depends on a steady flow of the precious natural resource but molly says micio land is not about power or money you know security this is nothing to do with any political issue from a different time if we are defending a government or business interests which government which business. some have their suspicions nationally forty pleasure energy company. is about to finish the second largest ukrainian mining plant in the world next to mali every year the cars do exactly this uranium is going to be very cheap there's a third world very cheap. predators play a very dangerous game and after the french military offensive reportedly sparked a deadly hostage crisis in algeria lightbulbs are beginning to go off in the heads

of ordinary citizens to pour out almost. i'm for intervention if it is to fight terrorism but it's got to be for good reasons you might know that it's for raw materials that are in mali gas oil diamonds and gold it already renders the ground it is not. they don't think about that well really so difficult they have made paris a huge target and france a target for terrorism. at least but with the prospect of untapped natural resources needed to keep fronts eliminated political analysts say that fronts promise to stop playing big projects of former colonies isn't going to be fulfilled any time soon plenty boy can see paris. international relations are professor mark allman says some governments do not learn the lessons history gave them. it's extraordinary the complacency about this the british ministry of defense

apparently shut down its north african desk in two thousand and ten and then of course in two thousand and eleven britain and france lead the intervention in libya and we're getting kind of and i look into this problem as a kind of backwash from that intervention because you have not really looked through what's going to happen if you overthrow gadhafi but you don't actually put anything stable in its place quite contrary spreads and similarly in mali the argument is that france is intervening to stop chaos but the risk must be from what we've seen with interventions before that the french intervention actually tend to send ripples of disorder further around the region the surprising thing is that some fairly basic security measures which are just really numbers of guards would not apply to that bay are the same places here on all sides what seems to. me is that to the insofar as the molly ivins probably sparklers nobody seems to think

that perhaps for the most groups to come from somewhere other than mali it seems they came across the nearby libyan border libya is as i say central to all this problem because all the plot of weapons that's been produced by the quotes the gadhafi regime but also the complete failure to establish any kind of real state you have essentially all those operating in different parts of libya hundreds of people gathered in new york to pay their respects to aaron swartz an online freedom activist who hanged himself last week the twenty six year old computer prodigies suicide came ahead of his trial for cyber crimes which could have resulted in him spending decades behind bars this week federal prosecutors dropped the charges against swartz and his family though and friends still blame the government for his death honest reports. the crime downloading millions of academic papers in the public domain from a paid subscription database and the belief that they should be free. to essentially rocking out too many books in the library the punishment facing thirty

years behind bars and a million dollar fine you're looking at a crime that essentially amounts to downloading p.d.'s to a hard drive. no person was harmed. there was no financial benefit murder received less punishment the result twenty six year old web wizard aaron swartz takes his own life the idea that he was facing decades in jail is just disgusting absolutely appalling and and now we've lost a tremendously valuable and talented human being while the plea bargain deal for only several months behind bars was reportedly a possible outcome the internet freedom crusader refused to be seen as a felon his family and supporters blame the prosecution's aggressive attempts to put swartz behind bars for his suicide this man a young man and his family were literally terrorized by the prosecutors and the

judicial discretion that let this case go forward and not stop while authorities dubbed him a criminal supporter say he was a robin hood in the fight for freedom of information aaron swartz was a prodigy at fourteen he helped write the are assessed specific ation an online syndication system that allows users to consolidate feeds from numerous blog sites automatically instead of having to check each website individually the program is now part of the common vocabulary of the internet and is used on a daily basis for publishing new stories from all over the world critics say u.s. officials wanted aaron sent down to set an example he was going up against policy and he knew it well but he thought he would be in the clear in the law because he was only spreading public domain documents instead swartz. case has made an example of how seriously the internet is regulated in the us the laws under which he was indicted did back to nine hundred eighty four many believe they're long outdated the prison sentences need to be relaxed especially for supposed crimes like this

where there was no economic motive where there was no way for him to profit even if they said even if he did all the things that he did that they said he did new legislation dubbed aram's law has been proposed in the u.s. congress it's still unclear whether there will be any real change but what is clear is that it once again took a tragedy to galvanize national debate and party new york pakistan's government and a muslim cleric here agreed on friday to bring an end to the mass protests in islam about tens of thousands of his supporters ended a sit in against widespread corruption and unemployment qadri convinced authorities to dissolve parliament in march voting should take place within ninety days the government also agreed to discussions on electoral reforms but all countries demanded that the army help set up an interim administration was rejected another sign of a deepening political crisis is the government's face off with the supreme court

its order to arrest of the prime minister over corruption allegations was dismissed and the hollywood journalist and a former pakistani air force officer says a change of power could be looming. likening it to the square and so many other things but my personal feeling is that in all those uprisings there was not one single leader around whom people could rally but over here they have in the shape of a llama the whole cadre but there have been actually two or three different theories about the background of this man some say that because of his canadian nationality and because of his longer stay in the west he may have been motivated as well as funded by the west there is another theory that he may be a stooge of the military the fact is that whoever has launched this particular person has done his homework because if the man has captured the spirit and imagination of a people. the feeling that they were down drug in there and neglected and they were

driven against of all because of bad governance because of the peril situation because of lack of energy lack of food and lack of jobs people are joining him in flocks and even those who are double minded are now trying to make sure that it matters if history has to change of this country. who countries anti-government slogans are driven by the discontent over corruption and a flawed electoral system included calls for revolution he spoke exclusively to the protest leader who told us exactly what he means. when i say revolution we should keep in your mind in egypt in tunis in libya and all these countries there was needed a dictatorship for years and years for a long time. and that people stood up against that in iran there was one eric here rule of shan shah the people stood up against that pakistan case is bit different

there is no one else who neither monadic nor military dictatorship here is electoral authority and twenty billion is electoral dictatorship true democracy does not exist in this society neither in political field nor in social field nor in economic field not democracy so this is a law lessness total chaos and anarchy in this country government is totally dysfunctional. saw that this is the single nation single country in the whole muslim world having a nuclear capability and if the same situation continues that would be a very big disaster if we could come to the level of collapse so out of this martin movement is anti corruption to educate our society from corruption and this is need of the whole muslim world the whole third world and developing muslim countries the have to get rid of corruption and corrupt leaders.

barack obama is now officially beginning his second presidential term having now taken the oath of office at the white house on monday he is expected to paint the prospects for the next four years and pledge to deliver on some promises he's so far failed to keep from all of this let's talk to jeffrey laurenti and international relations senior fellow at the century foundation think tank mr lynch laurenti thank you very much for being with us now obama has always placed a lot of emphasis on foreign policy what do you expect will be the key challenges for him in the next four years well i think what we're going to see in the next four years are those big pieces that he had sought to address in the first term that thwarted being reenergized and we hope see more success on that and i think in this respect that we have first an end to the war in afghanistan second action on climate change in which he invested

a fair amount of personal prestige at towards the end of his first year and then after the republicans took over one house of congress and it became clear it wasn't going to move in the congress any time soon it seemed to move back to the back burner of the agenda i think third we're going to see a revival on the nuclear nonproliferation front and his quest for nuclear abolition is the most interesting thing on the national security agenda is that in his first term he had as his cabinet chief for the two key departments state and defense people who had been opposed to him in the second term he's going to have in senator kerry and former senator hagel at the state department and defense department people who had been his supporters in the two thousand and eight campaign now you mentioned chuck hagel there might be a little bit of a discrepancy in how they would handle things i guess obama is stepping up drone strikes and has targeted killings in several several countries which is of course

illegal under international law but does this actually worry some u.s. politicians or even the american public do you think. well first it is arguable whether drone strikes conducted as part of a war as the afghanistan whether spillover into the taliban sanctuaries in pakistan would certainly be considered in war time and the question is whether drone strikes in places like yemen against al qaida would similarly be classifiable as part of self-defense operations or whether they do in fact and this is argued by many as you suggest cross the line so the drone strikes will remain a subject of a good deal of debate internationally and one hopes filtering back into the washington debate in fact john brennan nominated to be the news interactor of central intelligence agency himself has suggested that some kinds of rules on that road need to be written that it cannot be wide open left to

a president's discretion of course he can't talk about international relations in the u.s. without talking about the muslim community in the muslim world the u.s. was left to collect the pieces in libya where some of the islamists helped that the u.s. helped to bring to power were attacked and they were the ones who attacked and killed american diplomats why then does washington continue to back islamist in syria and other countries even if you look at what's happening in mali right now. well washington is certainly not backing the islamists in syria and in fact the most egregious of the syrian violent resistance groups through this. regime. has branded a terrorist organization and washington is hopeful of finding a way for syrians to be able to come through this crisis that is devastating their country with a government that can be inclusive and not in the hands of the most violent jihad

to sixty missed and i think that the libya case is something that has given many people pause in washington and appears as if more moderate forces are still dominant in the post but feel libya but they are not able to consolidate full governmental authority and partly just because you have some of the extremist elements that play by militia rules of the game so libya still remains on settled and briefly russia u.s. reset kind of still tense relations there especially with missile defense on the table how do you see this playing out in the next four years it is still vastly improved over where it was when george w. bush left office and the they remain and now president putin and president obama for a second term countries that have many convergent interests and neither of which is out to humiliate the other you have the grounds for further nuclear arms reduction deals coming up so we see here the prospects for reasonable

cooperation on that side of the international agenda where both countries share a common interest in a safer world appreciate your thoughts on the subject live from washington that was jeffrey laurenti senior fellow at the century foundation think tank thank you very much for being with us here on r.t. thank you. now barely off the starting blocks and president obama's already getting some harsh criticism from china and it's after washington with support for japan and its stand up against beijing over a string of uninhabited islands in the south china sea we report on this just a couple minutes coming up right here on our. last political opponents slam britain's prime minister david cameron for dodging the e.u. issue as he yet again delays his long awaited speech on the u.k.'s future role within the union stories and much more after the short break.

georgian president mikheil saakashvili military police have been accused by prosecutors of using a very unusual weapon to control members of the government a weapon so unusual that history great villains wouldn't even touch it that weapon was almost sexuality the georgian prosecutor's office claims a network of gay spies was set up to seduce certain politicians in order to surveil them and blackmail them the gay spies would tempt men in the government into going back to their apartments which were filled with hidden cameras and microphones to record information and create a not safe for work video to be used to put pressure on these officials this is truly one of the most unique and kind of gross weapons of political intrigue i've ever heard of i mean how many men in georgia politics could possibly fall into the spy trap you know if he actually did implement this scheme and it actually worked

than machiavelli and von bismarck could have a thing or two to learn from president saakashvili but that's just my opinion. and welcome back here with our. live from moscow twenty four hours a day. israel will elect a new parliament on tuesday and prime minister benjamin netanyahu is predicted to come out on top yet many israelis today don't think he's being radical enough policy or reports why many of netanyahu is right wing allies are changing their minds. he's the surprise success story of israel's election campaign and one twin millionaire who says a palestinian state would be suicide for israel now after lee bennett used to work for prime minister netanyahu but now he's working at taking supporters away from him like this man who used to be

a diehard supporter of netanyahu so he could party until these elections rolled around the likud is. a bus full of right wing members of knesset with a left wing person driving the bus as far as being i mean. even though i am opposed to it. i would say most members of the likud obviously is for it the irony is that while the world sees netanyahu as a white leader at home he's losing face among supporters for not being hawkish enough this is part of the right wing campaign he's up against there are some things we all know will never happen the sopranos will never return for another season. growing our pro and a peace agreement with the palestinians will not happen promises like this have put bennett's jewish home party in food position it's poised to take more than twelve percent of parliamentary seats analysts say netanyahu while still expected to serve

another term is running scared he's up his refrain i say in the most clear of terms the western wall is not occupied territory i don't care what the un says we will build in jerusalem because it's our right not on your hands we could list has grown even more want when with radicals like this woman high up in the pecking order. but the league would be taken apart it is a party with values the state of israel is a state of the jews whose eternal capital is jerusalem. but what will be the implications of such rhetoric after the elections many israelis are asking themselves. about the day after will netanyahu become more rightwing and risk drawing israel into conflicts with its neighbors or will he back down and risk losing say so among his supporters. is hoping for the latter that netanyahu will listen to world opinion and reach a compromise with the palestinians he knows all too well what the current cycle of

violence can bring speakers daughter was killed in a suicide bombing seventeen years ago. we don't have unfortunately in the center and the left a leader who is significantly charismatic to lead this country and give its people hope the left is also divided but i do think netanyahu will find a way to compromise because of world pressure but that compromise won't come easy enough to the bennett solution to the israeli palestinian conflict is to annex most of the west bank while allowing palestinians limited self rule in the wrist and while that might not seem a possible idea to most of the international community it's exactly what his constituency wants to hear a fact and it on yahoo is acutely aware of the r.t. television and of course r.t. will be closely following the election on the twenty second of january giving you in-depth coverage. how will change with to run develop.

isolate can there be peace with gaza what's next in relations with america will netanyahu survive his election on january twenty second. israel decides. and british prime minister david cameron this week again postponed a crucial speech on his country's future relations with the european union but excerpts from his speech were released they give a little away though other than that the pm believes the e.u. must address the challenges immediately otherwise the union would fail and britain could drift towards an exit but the leader of the u.k. independence party told us that the leaving of the e.u. was never on cameron's agenda. he's using the euro skeptic language to pursue a euro agenda in this speech is happening because of the rise of you and the rise of us give us led to massive discontent on the back benches in the house of commons and amongst the conservative party of the whole country that's what he's responding

say but the reality of what he says if you read the subtext is that the e.u. is very good for us but it serves our interests and i will promise i promise god to do my best over the next five years to do everything i can to keep britain a member of that you've made this issue is a key constitutional issue it isn't even about economics it's about who governs britain it's about i'll be dependent nation as a democracy and determine their own future or not a classic scare tactics always employed by the status quo whether they're defending slavery or the cold laws or e.u. membership three million british jobs will be lost if we left the european union really europe is aging europe as a percentage of the world economy is now below a fifth and falling quite sharply it is gripped by eurozone crisis which is likely because of their fanaticism to keep it together to last for up to a decade and yeah ok europe is thirty eight percent of our overseas exports and it's an important market place but the rest of the world is even more important to us. because we're stuck inside this old fashioned nineteenth century concept of

a customs union we cannot make our own trade deals anywhere else in the world let's have a free trade deal with europe like the swiss do and let's reengage with the rest of the world and while euro skepticism is on the rise in britain the ears economy strong economic stronghold germany appears to be harboring concerns over its sovereignty as well as artie's peter oliver found out. there's a rising feeling here in germany that it's not the germans who were really in charge of their country. the government has taken the sovereign rights of the german people and given them away to bureaucrats in brussels specifically with regards to currency this is a painful injury to the sovereignty of germany the issue is said to be fought out in the second tightest court this group calling themselves the civil coalition movement want to stop germany's fiscal future being decided by the european central

bank particularly how much german cash goes to other eurozone countries and set the press to democracy because it's no longer the governments who have to make a policy but it is the european sample central bank deciding which policy is paid for over five thousand people back their petition as they look to challenge one of the most common pieces of perceived wisdom in europe that germany is the success story in the eurozone there was no other country which had so little benefits out of the euro if you come to look to the numbers according to their legal team those numbers showed germany being forced to pay for the euro zone countries despite this not being part of the deal and the single currency was created finance isn't the only place where germans feel a grip is slipping one former german foreign minister gave different reasons why

they may be issues with sovereignty suggesting that they have their root in the memory of the country's past but sometimes we shy back from our responsibility as a sovereign states this is a problem not that we are pressed from the outside the defense is also a concern for those who believe germany is losing control of its sovereignty the country is still home to nato bases over twenty years after the end of. cold war germany today faces no major military threats nor does any european state and that's why this gigantic military machine that the americans have built up is completely about christic there appear to be historical cultural and economic reasons why some germans feel less sovereignty is disappearing and for a group of lawyers getting ready for their legal battle with the european central plank twenty thirteen look set to be an important year and what they see is the fight to return german rule to the german people peter all of a r.t.

berlin. beijing has slammed washington for its latest comments on china's territorial brawl with japan in the south china sea saying the u.s. should be more carefully careful with its words and stay away from the regions matters that is after statements made by u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton who are sure that tokyo of american support and want to china against any unilateral action in the dispute both beijing and tokyo lay claim to a string of uninhabited islands that are said to be rich in natural resources george cooder founder of international strategic alliances believes the u.s. is stoking the conflict between the two asian powers. let us created this mess and i think the u.s. is continuing. the problem between or between europe and china u.s. is again playing the search easy and being the game by all and one.